We're back, dear listeners, with sincere apologies for our prolonged absence. Today we talk about Grand Central Station, the post office near Grand Central Terminal, where we have recently opened a P.O. Box for all of your fan mail. We also have a brief guest appearance by the pod's Irish correspondent Katie Swabb, who offers us a tantalizing postal riddle. She'll join us again on a future episode to answer the riddle and tell us about her research in the Irish National Folklore Collection. To respond to the riddle, or to just say hello, write to:

Birth. Stamps. Death.

P.O. Box 26

Grand Central Station

New York, NY 10163

Links:

Historic Photographs of the Station

Grand Central Terminal Stamp

Our Website

Our Instagram

We're very grateful to the band All Good for supplying our intro and outro music, check them out on Instagram and head over to Spotify or wherever you stream your music to give them a listen.

Sam and Chris are joined by Graham Beck, pioneer of digital philately, host of the excellent Exploring Stamps Youtube channel, and member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee. Topics include making digital content about stamps, topical collecting, the cricket world cup, and the process of getting a stamp from idea to postage.

Notes

Exploring Stamps

PixPost (find Chris @chrispy_stamps and Sam @sam_stamps)

Postcrossing

Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee

American Topical Association (ATA)

Our Website

Our Instagram

We're very grateful to the band All Good for supplying our intro and outro music, check them out on Instagram and head over to Spotify or wherever you stream your music to give them a listen.

This week we’re talking about a curious 5c stamp released in 1967 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Voice of America (VOA) radio program, a first of its kind global broadcast born in the crucible of WWII and transformed over the course of the Cold War and modern eras. Sam and Christopher chat about the VOA’s 83-year history and the stamp’s designer, legendary artist Georg Olden—the first African-American to design a U.S. postage stamp. Part 2 of this series will get into a far more obscure piece of VOA history: the VOA Stamp Club.

Notes

VOA Stamp

Emancipation Proclamation Stamp

Georg Olden

VOA History

First Class: America’s Marvelous Midcentury Stamps (by David Cobb Craig)

Our Website

Our Instagram

We're very grateful to the band All Good for supplying our intro and outro music, check them out on Instagram and head over to Spotify or wherever you stream your music to give them a listen.